Whew! Hey my buddyroos! This part-time work schedule is, in the most bizarre way, more taxing than I could have imagined. I think it is more blog-friendly working the old 9 to 5 rather than 11 AM to 7PM or 2 PM to 10 PM.

When I write our blog (and I say “our” because this blog belongs to all of us!), I like sitting in front of the computer and drafting, editing, (even though spell check phucks up much of the time….), and checking my emails from various online sights because people never email me. I also spend a bit of time weeding out incredibly out-of-focus photos to replace with slightly out-of-focus photos instead. I like to do this in one long shot.

I still have to get used to the new schedule. But I’m off today so all is well!

Let me tell you something. Working under department store lights is very difficult because the lighting makes me look completely washed out. In fact, the only flattering lighting in the store is in the ladies rest room—but I can’t sell handbags from the toilet!

Unfortunately, I can’t conduct business from here!

Believe me, the mirror doesn’t lie and when I caught a glimpse of myself the other day I just about died of both fright and embarrassment. I looked so freakin’ old and washed out that I almost broke down in tears. I also realized that I needed to go with a lighter hand on certain make up items and heavier on others.

If I asked the mirror mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all, he would answer “Well lady, it ain’t YOU”! I’m shattered!

So the next day, I changed up and chronicled my “work” makeup application. I went lighter on the foundation and heavier on the eye makeup. I also went a bit more colorful on the cheeks and more neutral on the lips.

That evening, when Bonaparte picked me up at the mall, he mentioned that I looked very pretty and that my makeup looked great. In fact, he practically ordered me to apply my makeup like I had every day. He loved that I didn’t load on the foundation. Frenchmen! They notice everything!

Do you “mime” if I give you “mime” opinion, asked the Frenchman!

Anyway, I thought I would give a rundown on my work face. And yes. It does come under the subject of more shit old ladies do. And that is because we use just as many, if not more, cosmetics than our younger peers do and the cosmetics industries still continue to ignore us.

First of all, I prepared the two beauty blender dupes that I use by running them under the faucet to get them nice and wet so the blending would be easier. I no longer use the original Beauty Blender because Chippy ate it. The “Real Techniques” blender works just as well and is far less pricey. I also use the “Revive” brand blender to blend the highlighter and contour cream because it is constructed of a more rubbery substance and I find it just works better for blending a creamier substance.

I love this Real Techniques Blender for blending foundation!

I also prepared my face with Lancôme’s Genifique serum, of which I’m at the bottom of the bottle and Hourglass Primer to prime my skin.

I’ve been using Genefique serum on and off for years. It’s time for a repurchase. I won’t be repurchasing the Hourglass primer because at the $52.00 price I paid, the drugstore primers work just as well and are a lot less expensive!

Anyway, I started out blending e.l.f. Flawless Finish foundation. This is the most inexpensive foundation I’ve ever purchased and Bonaparte said it looks the best on me. Six bucks worth of drugstore foundation and it is better suited to me than any of my high-end foundation. Go figure!

e.l.f. Flawless Finish Foundation. Best six bucks I’ve ever spent! This is great and wears all day!

Next was a quick brush of Bare Minerals Well-Rested (one of my Holy Grail products) over and under lids to brush the blues away.

I grabbed the Mally Nude Attitude eyeshadow palette (which is quickly becoming a “go-to”) and brushed “Cream” under the brow bone. Then I added “Sand” over the lid and finally “Chestnut” in the crease and brushed out and up to give my eyes more of an almond shape. Oh. I also smudged a bit of the “Sand” shadow on the bottom lid too.

“Cream” all over and under the brow, “Sand” on the upper lid and lined below the eye and “Chestnut” in the crease. I nice trio!

The shadows look very nude and natural, but they really were darker in better lighting!

Next I did my brows. I’m going a bit thinner these days. I’ll tell you, this Mally 24/7 Brow Express is the best thing I ever bought for my brows. The color is sable and the pencil end is so great. It’s retractable, which I love because I can keep the point small and not worry about breaking any of the product off—then I just go over the brows lightly with the powdered end and finish off with a coat of the brow gel. It’s great!

I’m so thankful for Adrian’s Mally Makeover. He taught me to go lighter on the brow color and he was so right. The look is much softer!

Finished brows. They are looking mighty fine!

The lashes are next. I’ve written about lash extension/fiber mascara kits in the past. And I’m a fan of these products. It sometimes takes me forever to apply false lashes and the glue has a habit of irritating my eyes so I only use the fakes for special occasions. In the harsh department store lighting, I also find that regular mascara just isn’t cutting it. I purchased this lash extension kit by Bella Rose on Amazon recently because the price was great. I paid under $15.00 and I’m happy with the results.

The kit comes in a cute leather-like box that holds the tube of fibers and tube of gel mascara…

This is one coat. I love the length. If you want super-thick lashes, go for two or three coats. But one coat gives a more natural look!

Look-at 50+ this isn’t Latisse but it will give you a temporary lash fix by giving the lashes an appearance of length with one coat. If you are looking for a bit more fullness, then two or three coats will give you that look. But be careful. The fibers have a tendency to fall on to the cheeks and you can remedy that by a simple coat of the gel when you are finished.

I apply liner after lash products. I use the Urban Decay 24/7 pencil as a tightline. It lasts a decent amount of time. I used NYC liquid liner. I love this liner because it is incredibly inexpensive, the brush is super thin, which gives great control and the liner lasts all day.

My lining products. The Urban Decay Pencil glides on smoothly and is incredibly creamy. I have been using the NYC liner for years. The brush that comes with it is thin and gives great control. The white pencil from e.l.f., sadly didn’t work for me. The pencil wasn’t creamy enough for mature skin.

On the bottom inside lid, I used this e.l.f. white pencil. I was intrigued by the sharpener built into the cover of the tip. Needless to say, this pencil turned out to be a dud for me. The product doesn’t glide on nor is it creamy. On more “mature” eyes, creaminess is a plus because we don’t want to tug at the already sensitive skin. I’ll have to find another use for this—but at a dollar, it isn’t a big loss.

Eyes lined! In the course of a few moments, the traces of the white pencil I lined in the rim of my bottom lids had worn off completely.

Next step! Highlighting and contour. I like to make a triangle of Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser concealer. It states on the tiny bottle that it’s for dark circles. I use it to highlight. The color I use is fair. In addition, I like the way the product is distributed. The container is turned until the product reaches the spongey/fuzz/velvety tip at the end. It’s very pragmatic because there’s no waste.

Another one of my slightly out-of-focus photographs. I’m so talented! Anyway, the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer is in the back and the NYX Wonder Stick is in the front. It’ll be time to repurchase this Wonder Stick soon. I LOVE this! The texture is so nice and creamy and easy to blend!

I’ve heard mixed reviews on cream contour but personally, I think cream contours are “mature” skin friendly. Powders can sometimes look ashy or cakey and make our skin appear to be a bit more dry than usual. I found the cream just works well. I swipe under each cheekbone, the sides of my nose, under my bottom lip and blend, blend, blend with the very damp Revive blender. I think the rubbery texture of this blender is better-suited than the Real Techniques blender.

Blending the highlight and contour in. It takes no time and gives a nice finish and some sculpting!

Alrighty. Since the lighting washes out, I decided to use a longer-lasting and brighter color on my cheeks. I went with NYC Lovatics Lip and Cheek Tint.

NYC Lovatis Cheek Stain and e.l.f. stipple brush.

I use this only on my cheeks—it’s just too bright for my old lady fish lips. The color is cheeky pink and looks very bright red in the bottle. It swipes on a bit more bright pink. It dries fast so you have to work fast. I pat with an elf. stipple brush and blend.

Three stripes of cheek stain across the cheek stippled and blended in quickly gives….

…good color that lasts all day!

Two final steps. I wait till the end of this process to apply mascara on my bottom lashes. It gives any other eye product time to dry and settle. I love the NYC Sky Rise mascara because the wand is so easy to use for the lower lashes. Quite honestly, I’m not spending a ton of money on high end mascara anymore because mascara just doesn’t last long enough to justify the high price. There are a lot of great low end and drug store mascaras. You just have to find out which ones work for you!

I love the Sky Line mascara because the wand is perfect for applying product to the lower lashes. The spirals on the brush are spaced apart nicely so the lashes don’t get clumpy!

Last is lip color. This is such an ordeal for me. Really. It is. I have those lines above my mouth, which I always fill in with original Chapstick. It’s the greatest blur product.

Chapstick. My go-to “blur”!

Luckily, I discovered Mally Lip Fence, which is a little retractable pen of waxy heaven that you line your lips with to keep lip color from bleeding. This works!

Hey. It takes a village of products for kissable lips! The Lip Fence keeps those products placed where they belong!

Then I reline the lips with NYX Wonder Pencil and fill in my lips with NYX lip liner.

NYX Wonder Pencil is great for lining and the liner pencilin Pale Pink/Rose is the perfect nude base!

I’m coloring my lips in with the NYX liner pencil in Pale Pink/Rose. It keeps the gloss color from changing–I have very pigmented lips and need a bit of toning them down!

A fan of NYX Butter Gloss, I picked up this neutral pink—Tiramisu and love it. Does the lip color last all day? No. It does not. However, it lasts a good amount of time and I find I’m not touching up every ten minutes.

NYX Butter Gloss in Tiramisu. These glosses are fantastic. Hydrating and a nice hint of color that stays on for a while. NOT all day, but a good amount of time!

I have to admit. For me, the worst part of aging is the mouth. My lips, when I was younger, used to be full in the nicest way. These days they are full in a Leona Helmsley sorta way and it really isn’t that attractive.

She was one of the wealthiest women in New York City–and you would THINK Leona would have been more adept at applying her makeup. She could have afforded the best fillers. Ugh!

I find along with a lighter more neutral lip, smiling helps make my mouth look less saggy and in need of fillers that I cannot afford.

The final touch. NYX Butter Gloss and a smile!

While I put my makeup on, I take my hair and loosely pin curl in sections. When I take the bobby pins out, my hair falls in nice waves. Multitasking for the mature woman!

I section my hair and pin it up while applying my makeup. Multitasking. Look–I still have wrinkles..and now that 61 is just 4 days away, I notice the wrinkles are getting deeper. I just have to smile wider!!

I swear when I was younger I never needed as many beauty products as I do at this stage of my life. And I know I’m being repetitive, but does the beauty industry not realize this? If they truly did, more old ladies would be shown in beauty advertisements and editorials. Am I right? Huh?

Makeup and hair all done. Smile is on and I’m ready for work!

Hey. Love yourself. We need to be more like this lady—and she’s having a great time!

When we can be happy with ourselves, we can be happy with others! I’ll have what SHE’s drinking! Let’s enjoy our maturity!

I’m off to run errands! Enjoy the day and remember that old ladies rock the world of beauty and just rock the world in general! WAIT. Before I go. I want to show you something. I wiped off the makeup I had on at the end of the day. The drugstore makeup lasted just as long as the high end.

I know, I KNOW–this towel is really gross and disgusting. But I wanted to show that less expensive beauty products can last all day!

Here’s a great Dean Martin moment! He’s “Sitting On Top Of The World”. So am I!XOXOXOXO!

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About Catherine

Far from perfect, but enjoying life as a non-perfect and flawed individual at 60 years young. I'm still wondering what I'll be when I grow up!
The characters in my life's screenplay include my better half.
He is a refined Frenchman who grew up in Paris and summered in St. Tropez.
I grew up in Long Island and summered in Long Island.
I am not refined.
My three grown children are also a big part of my life.
For their sake, they happily live where their careers have taken them! But I can still mother them from a distance!
I write about the mundane. I write about deeply shallow issues. But whatever I write or muse about--it'll always be a bit on the humorous and positive side!
It's all good!

Thanks Terry. Ugh. I’m debating a new blog post. For a year and a half I’ve been unemployed! A year and a half. I start a part time job and guess what came in the mail today? A summons for Jury Duty. They couldn’t send me that whilst I was without a job???????? I feel my innards brewing and stewing! XOXOXOXO!

Love NYX Butter Gloss and it lasts about an hour on my lips I’m constantly reapplying and I keep it in my pocket because of that. I have to try the new “intense” formulation. But you look great Catherine! Congrats on the job! You need to write about how it’s going sometime.

HI Trudy. I carry a Butter Gloss in my little bag that I bring to the selling floor. I love those glosses so much and for the price–you can purchase five or six for the price of one luxury brand lippie–and the luxe brands don’t last long at all! Oh. I’ll be writing about the job at somepoint ! Thanks for the compliment–I appreciate that! XOXOXOXO!!!

Make up is all very mysterious to me. It looks like there’s a tremendous amount of skill and know-how (not to mention outlay of cash!) involved in doing it right. I appreciate the results, though. Sadly, as a man who is not a member of a seventies rock band, I don’t really have the make up option. Of course, there’s always my paper bag. 🙂

Hi Lizi…Right?????? Those lights!!! Who invented those harsh lights anyway? I can tell you it definitely was NOT a woman. Stores need to change the lighting to make it more “mature woman” friendly!! XOXOXOXO!!!

Hi Catherine and so nice to know that I’ve got a friend who puts as much make-up on as I do! Well, no, I think you put on a just little bit more than me! You look lovely, btw, especially with the subtle pink lipstick. I can’t wear lipstick at all now what with those little lines which no amount of primer will stop me looking like a character out of Batman. And just lately I’ve been quite worried as to how pale and washed out I look – it’s a combination of this winter with no sun and the virus I had. Anyway, I’m doing the opposite to you I still put on quite a lot of eye makeup, but the foundation I’ve been using is so subtle you could hardly see it. Now that’s great when you’re looking well but I so needed something that covered me up a bit more. Out of desperation I actually used one of those magazine give-aways. It was a Dior Forever foundation in Beige and quite heavy duty but wow it really worked ! So off I went and bought some. And it’s so nice to have for that extra covering. xxxxxxxxxx

P.S. Jury duty – hmm, that’ll be interesting – will work give you time off?

HI Penny. Oh. I LOVE cosmetics and makeup and skincare stuff. For some reason it makes me feel happy when I have a bright face on!! I’m going to have to try that Dior Forever foundation at some point now!! The Jury Duty–work HAS to give me off. It’s a crime if you don’t show up. And I’m trying to get out of it–man oh man, do I feel a post coming on here…..XOXOXOXOXO!!!

I love that I have found your blog! I wish we could be neighbors. But I do think there would be too many “Lucy and Ethel” moments! #joytomyday.
SIDEBAR: I love the Lady in the mirror telling herself a joke. You can tell she TOTALLY gets it!

Hi Winnie! Welcome to the neighborhood! OMG. I think you are going to enjoy it here and those Lucy and Ethel make life and friendship so much fun! OH.That lady in the mirror telling herself a joke—She definitely gets it. I get it and so do you! Go back a couple of posts and watch the “Watusi” dancing ladies. I KNOW you will love that too–it gets better with each view! XOXOXOXOXO!!!

The only thing I seem to have trouble with these days is blush. My cheeks seem so dry as I get older. And I don’t put eye liner on in the usual way. I actually apply it to the water line on top and bottom. That way it’s always straight and makes my eyelids look bigger.

Hi Lady Calen. Oh. I can’t use powder blush any more at all. The NYC cheek stain is great because it’s a liquid. Also, Stila, Nars and iT cosmetics all have cream blushes that are excellent. I cannot apply liner to my bottom waterline at all because my eyes have a tendency to tear up and the liner always gets washed away! XOXOXO!!!

Fantastic stuff! You look wonderful and definitely the woman I would buy a bag from. I know we put more effort in these days, however I also think the older we get the better we look – if we have even half an ounce of personality or character, the wrinkles soften the mix of facial features and if you have had the life where you’ve had the odd laugh and tried lighten things up as you go then generally the laughter lines outweigh the frowny ones so they are quite forgiving. That said some days when I have been wandering through the department store on the way to the bus station after a day at work, I have wondered who the mad looking bat is stomping towards me – only to discover I am marching straight up to a full length mirror (do I look like an old boot? erm…… no comment)… I’d hate to be younger – too much pressure to conform in looks and always look fabulous and without much interest yet, my colleagues have low expectations of a woman my age (51 and a half) so days I turn up in a together-type of way is a bonus for them as well as me.

…and I admire your photography skills – I merely take photos of plants and shove them on facebook, always outside, plants don’t run away or wince at the camera. Photos – first thing in the morning, it is as much as I can do to match the leg to the knicker hole most days.

HI Juliet. Thanks for the compliments on my photo skills or lack thereof!! But you are correct in not wanting to be a younger woman. I am with you on that one. I don’t ever remember being pressured into having to look so picture perfect. I’m happy to be young in the pre-selfie, pre-cellphone age.. Its weird–as much as we are progressing in the tech world we are regressing in character! “Selfieshniss” is the new “selfish”! XOXOXOXOXO!!!